From: hekunze@watmsg.waterloo.edu (Herb Kunze)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling
Subject: Wrestling TidBits - 09/12
Message-ID: <1991Sep12.134259.7778@watmath.waterloo.edu>
Date: 12 Sep 91 13:42:59 GMT
Sender: news@watmath.waterloo.edu (News Owner)
Organization: University of Waterloo
Lines: 125
- The Ultimate Warrior saga continues. UW's contract with the WWF runs
for several months yet, so the 90 day suspension doesn't go to the
end of his contract. This means that Vince has the choice of bringing
the UW back in 90 days, releasing him from his contract, or suspending
him some more. Those rumours of the UW coming to blows with Vince at
Vince's birthday party in New York have reached here now. While the
public and the media have been told that UW was suspended, the guys
in the locker room were told he was fired. Talk now is that Vince
will release the Warrior at the end of the suspension and he'll be able
to negotiate with any organization.
- Randy Savage has given Vince McMahon his notice. He's retiring as a
wrestler, but wants to stay on as a commentator. Of course, Vince
wants Randy back in the ring against Jake Roberts, especially after
filming that skit at the reception. Lanny Poffo, Randy's brother,
was brought in to replace John "The Coach" Tolos as manager of the
Beverly Brothers, in an attempt to sway Randy. Tolos, by the way,
was let to go for health reasons according to the WWF.
- Ric Flair debuted in the ring for the WWF in Ottawa on Tuesday. He
defeated Tom Stone in his first WWF TV squash match. There was also
a confrontation between Flair and Roddy Piper on the Funeral Parlor
segment.
- Van Hammer, the talk of Usenet ever since the Clash of Champions last
week, was signed by WCW just before the Clash. In a time when WCW is
not giving out contracts to many wrestlers (excluding the big names)
and is instead asking them to sign for $300 an appearance (which
incidentally was the reason Nikita Koloff left), they signed Mr. Hammer,
or should we call him Van, to a $75000 contract. Hence the clean
job by Terrence Taylor and the big push that will be Van Hammered
at us.
- Just to summarize, while obtaining amazing talent like Van Hammer and
holding on to superstars like Oz and P.N. News, WCW has lost or let
go the comparably untalented Robert Gibson, Nikita Koloff, Dick
Slater, Dick Murdoch, and Kevin Sullivan.
- Greg Valentine failed a drug test in the WWF and has been suspended
for three weeks. Paul Roma also failed a drug test and has been
suspended as well. Don't know what they were caught doing, but it
wasn't steroids since the WWF is a long way from actually testing
anybody for steroids.
- The much talked about WWF steroid policy will apparently be run
the same as the other drug tests in the company. First failure means
a suspension, second means a suspension and a trip to the rehabilitation
centre, third means termination. When you're talking about steroid
tests, even randomly administered tests by an honest third party, this
means that nobody will be ever be fired over steroid usage. Athletes
the world over know how to beat all current steroid tests. Only those
that are stupid or negligent get caught. So the stupid or inexperienced
Joe Wrestler gets caught using steroids. He's suspended for a bit and
gets some quick tips from the veterans in the locker room, so that when
he returns he's educated enough that he won't fail again. I don't think
that this will be eliminating the use of steroids in the business, but
it makes good public relations. Meanwhile Vince still pushes over-juiced
guys like Sid Justice, while claiming that talent is all that it takes
to get ahead in the company. Same thing goes for WCW, where Bobby Eaton
probably wonders what he's got to do to get that push and Lex Luger
flexes his way to the top of the organization followed closely by
Sting.
- There's a rumour here that the Rockers have been suspended for 90
days, too, with no reason given (although steroids are implied by
the columnist - but again this is nonsense). Shawn Michaels has been
out with an injury for a while, so the Rockers have made no TV
appearances for quite some time. I was under the impression that
Marty Janetty and Shane Douglas would be working the Rockers'
matches in the interim.
- There's still talk of Earthquake John Tenta leaving the WWF. Seems
he isn't having fun anymore. He has lost a few matches at fairly
recent house shows to guys that are low-level, so there may be some
truth to this one this time.
- Let's check Vince's thought process: "I've got a Dragon. Hmmm. I've
got a Snake. Ummmm. I've got a Skinner. Yep. I've got a Birdman.
Sure do. I've got a Bulldog. I've got a whole damn zoo, alright.
But I don't have a king of the jungle! Yeah! I need a Lion!"
Well, not long after that neuron finished firing, Vince came up
with the ideal new gimmick. I guess that Battle Cat was so effective
that Vince has decided to create a wrestler with a Lion's mask - not
a Tiger Mask ;-) - and has gotten none other than Paul Orndorff to
return to the WWF and work the character, called The Lion (oooohs
and aaaaaahs from the crowd). I wonder whether this one will even
make it to TV.
- Barbers around the world should be happy to hear that Brutus Beefcake
is planning to return to the ring by X-Mas of this year.
- After delving into the mind of Vince alone, one can only marvel at the
mental processes of Vince & Pat Patterson together as they think of
how they are possibly going to book matches with Sid "who needs
workrate" Justice. Sid replaced the UW in a match with the Undertaker
just after the UW's suspension. One can argue whether this would
increase or decrease the workrate of the match, I suppose. When
you are on that end of the workrate spectrum, it's all a little gray.
All that Sid and the Undertaker did was choke each other and then
trade some power spots. Neither man sold a thing for the other,
and Sid ended up knocking out the Undertaker with his own urn.
This past weekend, Sid beat Curt Hennig in 4 seconds in Los Angeles.
Curt, who was just finishing up some bookings before getting his
back fixed, must have had a hospital appointment that he wanted to
reach.
- WCW's Halloween Havoc takes place on October 27th this year. Of course
the main event will be Lex Luger defending the WCW title against Ron
Simmons. Also, the Lightheavyweight champion will be crowned when
Brian Pillman defeats, er..., meets, Richard Morton. And there is
talk that Sting will team with Rick Steiner to face Abdullah the Butcher
and Cactus Jack Manson.
- As Gary Will hinted in an earlier post, Hiro Hase and Kensuke Sasaki
will not be coming in to WCW this month because Sasaki broke his
shin bone. Sasaki will be out until the end of the year, and New
Japan isn't going to bother sending in Hase alone. Hopefully, they
will still do the short tours with Keiji Muto and Jushin Riger.
Herb...
P.S. I'm off to Cornwall today for a wedding this weekend. I have
scored the Clash of Champions booking predictions but I don't have
the posting ready. I'll get that out on Sunday, hopefully.